DOE Reframes the New Balance 2010 Through a Yin-Yang Design Lens

Name: DOE x New Balance 2010
Colorway: TBC
SKU: TBC
MSRP: ¥1,199 RMB (approx. $180 USD)
Release Date: July 11 (DOE), July 12 (New Balance Grey), July 14 (retailers)
Where to Buy: DOE, New Balance Grey

New Balance is teaming up with DOE, the Shanghai-based streetwear label, on a reimagined version of the New Balance 2010 that translates Eastern philosophy into footwear. The collaboration frames the silhouette through a Taoist yin-yang lens, using a theme the two brands describe as “All-Embracing, Ocean-Deep” to shape a shoe built around ideas of balance, inclusivity, and coexistence.

Understanding the weight of this collaboration requires understanding DOE’s place in Shanghai. Founded in 2014 by a group of self-described idealists, the label has spent more than a decade positioning itself as one of the city’s defining streetwear voices, weaving contemporary Chinese pop music, cinema, and global youth street culture into elevated menswear staples. Its guiding 无名氏 (Nameless) philosophy, framed by the brand tagline “BE FORMLESS,” argues that individuality and multiplicity can coexist inside a single brand identity, a stance that helped shape Shanghai’s streetwear conversation across the 2010s and 2020s. Pairing that identity with New Balance, a heritage brand founded in Boston in 1906, sets up the kind of East-meets-West conversation both brands describe as central to the project.

The design carries that philosophy through visually rather than literally. Working from the classic 2010 shape, DOE splits the silhouette into a black-and-white composition where the two tones flow into each other rather than sitting in strict opposition, an interpretation of yin-yang duality that emphasizes movement over contrast. High-grade suede meets breathable technical mesh across the upper, layering texture into what would otherwise read as a purely graphic statement, while New Balance’s ABZORB cushioning sits in the midsole to keep the shoe wearable beyond its conceptual weight. The 2010’s original contours stay intact, giving the piece its recognizable base while the surface treatment does the storytelling.

That approach echoes the broader arc of the 2010 within New Balance’s recent catalog. The silhouette has become one of the brand’s more collaboration-ready runners in recent years, picking up steam through partnerships that treat its bulky, gorpy profile as a canvas for cultural translation rather than a straightforward performance piece. DOE’s contribution extends that pattern, using the model to stage what the brands frame as a dialogue between Eastern thought, street aesthetics, and century-old shoemaking craft.

The New Balance 2010 designed by DOE launches July 11 at DOE in mainland China, followed by a July 12 release at New Balance Grey pop-up locations, the New Balance official mini-program, with wider distribution across select official retailers from July 14.